‘Cat punching’ page on Facebook

Just days after Facebook took down a public Valentine’s Day cat-punching event page depicting animal abuse; a similar page celebrating violence against cats has appeared.

Nearly 30,000 people signed a petition earlier in the week causing Facebook to pull the original cat-punching page but by Tuesday a new page entitled “Valentine’s Day cat punching memorabilia,” was online.

Michael Ruzza, who started the original petition, said his daughter showed him the page on Sunday night.

“There was a video of small animal on fire, running around a yard, and pictures of people insinuating they were going to rough up cats,” Ruzza said.

A spokesperson for Facebook confirmed that the original cat-punching page was removed earlier this week but said that there are no plans to remove the most recent posting.

“We have carefully reviewed the page and found that it doesn’t violate our standards. We realize that some people may find such dark humor upsetting, but our standards are designed to allow people to describe and comment on the world around them,” the Facebook spokesperson said in an e-mail statement.

Many on the Facebook page have questioned whether it’s legal to depict animal cruelty online.